This day in 1918 in The Record: March 4

Sunday, March 4, 2018

Monday, March 4, 1918. State senator George B. Wellington of Troy has blocked an apparent attempt to insert “poison pill” language into a proposed referendum for the prohibition of alcoholic beverages in New York State.

The state has two possible tracks to an alcohol ban. The legislature can move to ratify a federal constitutional amendment that was approved by Congress last year, or it can act on its own by referendum, as proposed by the senate’s taxation and retrenchment committee.

While Wellington doesn’t accuse the committee of trying to sabotage the prohibition movement, he criticizes the language of the proposed referendum for being “so strict and inclusive as to make it objectionable to nearly every interest, with the expected result that it would be overwhelmingly rejected.”

As The Record’s capital correspondent reports, “The senator said the state referendum provided for a bone dry condition of the greatest extreme and doubted should [it be passed in that form if wines could be used for sacramental purposes. Obviously this would arouse the opposition of several religious creeds and a majority of whom might otherwise be inclined to favor prohibition.”

At tonight’s committee meeting, Wellington receives assurance that the offending language has been removed. “The state and federal amendments now conform in every possible respect and differ only where it is absolutely necessary to distinguish between nation and state,” our reporter notes.

The senate holds a public hearing on the referendum next week. Before then, the assembly judiciary committee may advance the federal amendment to the floor of the lower house. The committee reportedly favors ratification by an 8-5 margin, but prohibition advocates still need four more votes in the assembly as a whole by their latest count.

Starting Right to Build Homes

The Troy Development Corporation has hired “notable city planner and housing authority” John Nolen to conduct a war housing census in hopes of getting federal support for plans to settle thousands of Watervliet Arsenal workers in the Collar City.

Nolen recently completed a similar project in Wilmington and has been “identified with the solution of war housing situations” in Bridgeport, Akron, Flint and other cities, The Record reports.

“Mr. Nolen’s services are valued highly because, it is pointed out, in order to obtain aid from the government it is essential to submit a straightforward and practical report of just what the city can do.”

Assisted by “one of America’s leading social welfare workers,” as yet unnamed, Nolen will “make a thorough survey of all the present housing and rooming accommodations in Troy and this district” and report on the prospects of rehabilitating vacant houses for arsenal workers.